Koban 6: Conflict and Empire

by Stephen W Bennett

  Hitok uttered a confused hoot-pant. “There’s no denying the Federation’s reaction at a more populated and developed world like this one. Grudfad, by waiting to see what type of ships the Federation sent in that last wave, paid for our curiosity. He has already lost twenty-four more Ravagers, against only five of their ships lost. Forty-three nearly helpless Shredders have been blown apart, in a terrible travesty of their names. They are designed for a type of combat the humans refuse to fight.”

  Then he commented on the good fortune granted to his Group 1 Ground Force. “Why do you think the enemy is permitting the supply ships through unchallenged? We need the ammunition and power packs, food, and heavier weapons, spare parts, and replacement body armor, so I’m not complaining. But this smacks of being a deliberate strategy on their part, which must have a benefit for them in the long term. Yet, I can’t see how it helps them.”

  Thond hooted in amusement. “They have not been shy in showing their displeasure with us up to now. I’m sure an unpleasant explanation will soon be revealed.”

  “Well,” Hitok said, almost in envy, “Commander Grifdan is satisfied the enemy has not placed any defenses along the river valley he’s in. That valley leads up to the bluff where his target city and spaceport were built. Several high suspension bridges cross the river, and make for shorter routes, but he isn’t about to use them. They would be too tempting a target for demolition with Pillagers on them, and they may be high enough for some of the defense lasers to target them, if they were leaned on their sides. He told me he split Group 2 in half, and is using the excellent roads that run parallel to the curving river on both sides, along the lowest parts of the valley.

  “Most of that city’s laser batteries are high up on the bluff, and can’t possibly be aimed down into the valley, as happened to Gontra on the flat plains. Grifdan says the hills along the winding river will shield his Pillagers for most of his approach, even if some of the space defense lasers above them, around the city, could somehow be tipped over to such an extreme angle. The valley is free of the high ridges and narrow canyons that were used to trap Culpa. Staging a simultaneous double ambush on both sides of the river in the valley is impossible. Each column is within easy range of the other for mutual fire support. I wish the situation I faced had so obvious a solution.”

  “What have your scouts and drones reported?” Thond asked, having been too preoccupied with other matters to foolishly micro manage his best Ground Force Commander.

  “My battlefield AI estimates there are less than ten thousand enemy soldiers in body armor, dispersed around the edges of the city on the side of our approach, to confront my column. Although, in the last twentieth of a cycle, keeping a drone aloft has become nearly impossible. They are shot down even when stealthed.”

  “The enemy has no type of Pillagers of their own? This is where their small military ground force, the only one apparently remaining on this planet, is concentrated. If they had armor like ours, here is the place they would use them. Could the terrain or buildings be concealing them?”

  “They would have had to reposition them before our fleet arrived. No tanks have been seen. The scouts have not entered the city, but they have used vantage points on hilltops near the edge of the outlying structures to observe. I mentioned the problems with drone observations. That itself is a clue to how sophisticated the enemy body armor is. They are being shot down by individual troopers, at considerable distance, using plasma rifles that have higher energy bolts than do our own handheld weapons. And their targeting accuracy is fast and accurate. I believe they must have low-grade Artificial Intelligent systems helping them, linking their hand weapons to their suit visors, as ours do. In the Empire, since the Thandol prohibit such weapons production for the subservient species, only we and the other security forces have such capability. We have not faced an enemy equipped like this previously.”

  “Then that makes them a potential match with your Ragoons, but not your armor. Our own infantry can’t easily take out a Pillager without heavier weapons than plasma or laser rifles. Even against a shoulder fired missile, our reactive armor makes penetration unlikely. If several of their soldiers focused repeated bolts on the same spot, they would eventually burn through. A Pillager crew would have to stand still, like idiots, to permit that.”

  Hitok agreed, but was still concerned. “My crews are trained to keep moving and to fire back instantly when attacked, but to be blunt, our Ragoons have faced only relatively inexperienced forces in the last twenty orbits or so, since the last organized revolt by the three species that joined forces. These people faced the Krall, within their own life times, and won that war. They have already demonstrated resilience and improvisation against two of our Ground Force Groups. I don't want to be surprised.”

  “I assume you will take advantage of the surrounding hills and valleys, and approach from multiple directions? Gontra and Culpa kept their forces bunched together and came at the enemy from only one direction. Grifdan has split his force in two, to negate a single trap catching both columns, and they can each support the other column if ground forces foolishly attempted to attack his armor.”

  Hitok bobbed his entire body once, in agreement. “I will be entering the city along six corridors on this east side. Two are larger highways, the other four are lesser routes, through what appears to be residential areas, and then, when close to the orbital batteries, individual units will be dispatched to destroy them, as the main force continues towards the spaceport we need to capture. The scouts are reporting that the enemy in body armor are spread around the east side of the city, and will not be able to concentrate what force they have on any single point of entry. They are using civilian transport trucks, except for a number of heavy shuttles that have carried groups to the more distant locations. There is a mass evacuation underway of their civilians, which sometimes clog their roads, but that is on the west side, and to a less extent on the north and south.”

  Thond had a plan for that. “When they move most of their citizens out of the city, away from us, I’ll direct the Stranglers to circle and intercept them, they can become hostages. Our Space Force Strangler Captains have been reluctant to get involved, without the Ravager escorts that normally fly cover for them, as they travel low and slow over a population they are beaming into painful submission. Had I stayed on the flagship, the Ground Forces would have had more support. Particularly after what happened to the twenty Stranglers assigned to Gontra.”

  Hitok used a Ragnar cliché. “You’re shedding winter hair at the end of summer.” It meant he was too late to wish he’d done something different.

  Thond hooted in good humor. “It would relieve the heat I’m feeling now, however.”

  Then he added, “I’m eager to see how you and Grifdan adjust to our unpredictable enemy.”

  ****

  Mirikami was pleased. “I’ll bet they couldn’t have predicted so many of our reinforcements would do that, or even realize yet what we just did.”

  He was referring to the nearly five hundred ships that separated from the two thousand new arrivals. Close to fifteen hundred ships immediately joined the onslaught on the Ragnar fleet, which tried to hold their own against double their number of warships. They were sacrificing ships to cover the landings of supplies for the Ground Forces. The civilian supply ships were descending recklessly, as if their survival depended on landing quickly. It did, but they were unaware that the only threat today came from the soon to depart Ragnar ships if they didn’t obey. The Ragnar’s own commercial ships Jumped as soon as the new Federation fleet arrived, with the ships of the subservient races already committed to landings. The Ragnar commercial captains only stayed as long as they did, to maintain the pretense that they would be following the ships of the subservient species down to the planet.

  Mirikami took advantage of the ships landing, to slip in his ships loaded with four hundred thirty-two Shadows, two hundred ladybugs, and twenty-one thousand Kobani in shielded body armor. Of
course, the Kobani ships possessed near perfect stealth only while flying in a vacuum. Atmospheric disturbances from their passage, if they had streaked across empty skies, would have revealed so many of them making landings. So they didn’t do that.

  The two hundred fifty Ragnar supply ships were descending towards four landing sites, which were near the same cities where the PDF had the greatest need for what the Kobani brought. The five hundred Kobani ships quickly dove into atmosphere to join with those enemy supply ships, to descend close to the four cities under ground assault, using the supply ships as cover. Their atmospheric passage was mixed with the ion and turbulence trails of the completely visible civilian craft from the Empire.

  At extremely low altitude, the Kobani ships separated and proceeded at considerably lower speeds towards their designated landing sites at the four cities, with Mirikami communicating all the while with the PDF colonel, to avoid friendly fire mistakes. The five hundred Kobani ships were not using coded IFF transmissions to identify themselves to the PDF, because that signal would also mark them as the enemy to the Ragnar. You can’t remain anonymous if you shout here I am to your friends. The PDF, in turn, was only firing at orbital height targets that were not using IFF, and despite misgivings, they sent no Turb Control guided missiles aloft.

  Both sides were being resupplied, with one difference. The Ragnar ground forces would be losing orbital bombardment support and resupply, because they knew their war fleet was about to withdraw. Not so, for the PDF ground forces, with Kobani ships soon to dominate space above Tanner’s World.

  ****

  Commander Grifdan was at the head of his left bank column, following the road on that side of the river. He was staying roughly even with the right bank column, which was led by Lieutenant Commander Kardor, his longtime second in command. Kardor too had his armored head protruding from the top hatch, but neither Ragnar was exposing their entire body, so they were prepared to button up if any opposition presented itself.

  Culpa’s armor had transmitted his visuals and vital signs to designated AI’s on selected Ravagers and it was relayed back to the other Groups, as he was roasted alive in his suit, coated in a thick flaming gel of some sort of petroleum product. Gontra had also been exposed, sitting on his turret when he died, but his turret’s cupola had been partly vaporized, along with his body, so being buttoned up would have made no difference for him.

  Several times, Group 2’s split columns encountered abandoned vehicles on their respective roadways. Mindful of how they had been used as flaming booby traps against Culpa’s Group 3, they blasted the vehicles at a safe range, using high-powered lasers.

  Every one of them fired at rewarded their caution, not with gouts of flaming petroleum, but with powerful star-hot plasma filled blasts, as their still active fusion bottles ruptured and violently lost containment. Because there was a powerful explosion each time, rather than potentially less lethal plasma venting, Commander Grifdan knew an explosive device had been affixed to their power units. Apparently, the enemy hoped the Pillagers would try to roll over them or push them aside, triggering a detonation when they were close. Usually, if a fusion bottle was burned through this way, the laser created a small molten point of failure somewhere on the containment housing, which caused one side of a fusion bottle to vent energetically. Dangerous, even to a Pillager if it was close enough, but they generally didn’t suddenly explode, sending high velocity fragments to damage the tracks, weapons, or reactive armor.

  Grifdan’s drones confirmed that there were dozens of abandoned vehicles on each of the two valley spanning bridges. He had already determined the bridges should be avoided, because of the risk of their being demolished as a column tried to cross the long spans, or a tipped on-its-side orbital laser might be able to pick tanks off as they crossed. He didn’t give a thought to how obvious the booby traps were on the winding roads by the river. That their purpose may have been merely to demonstrate why using the high bridges, with multiple vehicles parked on them, should be avoided.

  They found fertile farmland along the wide river valley, and there were frequent evacuated farm dwellings. Livestock was seen near some of the large red structures by the residences, and Debilitater units demonstrated their purpose, as their operators beamed them over the helpless screaming animals, and the silent structures as well, just in case the drones had missed the IR heat signature of someone hiding.

  One bored Debilitater operator focused his antenna to form a narrow high-powered beam, and played it on the center of the river, which was slightly below a curve in the road they followed. There were clearly aquatic creatures there, but not a huge population, and most of the fish weren’t very large, as their frantic and painful splashing demonstrated.

  His Pillager was in the Legion immediately behind the one the Group Commander personally led. The column was currently pausing behind a low hill where the road followed a river bend to the left. The right bank column would briefly be exposed on the opposite side roadway when they followed that curve. There was a narrow line of sight visibility of both sides of the river from the city, located farther up the valley. The head of the valley narrowed, and rose higher as it neared the edge of the city, with the river filled with rapids as it descended to the more placid waters below.

  The split column had been following a simple procedure, when the left or right line of Pillagers would be exposed to the city bluffs, and potential laser or plasma fire from there for a short distance. Units from the still shielded column, protected by the terrain, would take positions just below the top of the hilltop, where their guns could be trained on the city. The column about to be exposed to potential fire, would space units out, and one at a time, race at maximum speed along the well-built road until the next bend of the river valley again gave them cover.

  Next, their Pillagers would climb a hillside to cover the advance of the other column for the same limited exposure. At this point in their advance, they were less than two miles from the city limits at lower elevations below higher ground. The main part of the city was built along the top of a huge wide bluff. The weapons the tanks possessed could easily target any structure they could see, and for the guided bunker busters, they could strike the other side of the city if needed, using drone images for targeting coordinates. The Debilitater equipped units had been repeatedly playing narrow beams along the nearest edge of the city, to discourage observers and combatants. There hadn’t been a shot fired at them yet, but neither had there been shots fired at Group 3 or 4, until the traps were sprung.

  The enemy’s orbital lasers weren’t firing at overhead targets now. That was possibly a result of not having low level Ragnar targets anymore. Drone observations revealed that the batteries on this side of the city had been driven away from their pads, probably to preserve them from long range tank bombardment, well before the Pillagers reached accurate firing range. The Space Force had held to higher altitudes, above five hundred miles, because fighting with enemy ships could leave them distracted and vulnerable to ground energy beams, if they strayed into lower orbits, where Kobani ships repeatedly tried to draw them. Periodic flashes of exploding ships had burned their way even through the daytime sky on this side of the planet. On the night side, the brilliant flashes had cast brief shadows.

  From the surface, it had not been obvious who had the upper hand, since craft of both sides exploded impartially bright. However, knowing that it was their fleet that was about to withdraw, provided the rank-and-file Ragoons enough of a clue as to the allegiance of the majority of those dying ships. The vacuum-suckers had earned their nickname today, and a high measure of respect. At least until the Ragnools vanished into the safety of Tachyon Space, leaving the Ground Forces to hold out on their own, waiting to learn if a relief force would be organized. That was assuming the Emperor, or his High Command, considered them worth saving.

  In any event, they intended to continue to fight, because surrendering to the will of the Empire never ended the immediate suffering f
or the losers. The civilians were made to pay, and their combat forces paid the harshest price, even after surrender. The Thandol never admired the heroics of their opposition, although the Ragnar did. Not that they refused to administer the punishments when ordered to do so.

  To cover the right bank column, which was now prepared to accelerate their mechanized units around the exposed bend of the roadway, Grifdan sent two Legions of his Pillagers up the gentle hillside to his left, to provide suppressive fire if needed. The heavy laser tanks also doubled as his air defenses, and they had active radar scans that constantly watched the full sky, seeking enemy targets.

  An airborne enemy was defined as anything the Ragnar hadn’t sent up there. The alien avian species here had been learning that harsh rule of survival all day from every Ragnar armored column, as well as from the infantry forces they’d left at the landing zones. Any bird or animal might be a spy bot, and earned the attention of a low powered laser or higher powered Debilitater ray. Besides, it kept bored gunners occupied and alert.

  Looking at a handheld screen, something he knew Kardor was also doing at the head of the other column, he watched for overlaid digital symbols of any AI detected threat, compiled from the integrated radar, visual, infrared, and audible spectrums being monitored. There was the usual motion of plants in the breezes, distant birds, a number of livestock animals, but nothing moving, mechanical or living, was detected along the city bluff they could see. He signaled Kardor to proceed.

  When a hundred eighty of the right bank column had raced around the exposed curve, without any response from the city, and with only five more units to go, Kardor ordered two Legions to climb the hill now shielding his forward Pillagers, to cover the left bank column when it would next be exposed.

  That must have been the triggering event for the human defenders, indicating this Group was now close enough for what was to come.